Improvement in guard-fingers for harvesters



ATENT OFFICE.

K. H. C. PRESTON, OF'MANLIUS, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN GUARD-FINGERS FOR HARVESTERS.

Y Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,265, datedSeptember 10, 1861.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, K. II. C. PRESTON, of Manlius, inthe county ofOnondaga and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Guard-Fingers for Harvesters; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspeciiication, in which- Figure lis a longitudinal vertical section ofmy invention, taken in the line x x, Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan or topview of the same. Fig.

3 is a detached perspective view of the stationary cutter, which isfitted in the guardfinger. Fig. 4 is a transverse section of Fig. l,taken in the line y y, Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severaliigures.

The object of this invention is to obtain a simple, cheap, and efficientmeans for securing steel plates in the guard-fingers of harvesters'thoseiingers which areprovided with caps. These steel plates form thebearingsurfaces for the sickle, and also form ledger blades or cutters,which greatly assist the teeth of the reciprocating sicklein theircutting operation. In securing these plates in guardlingers which areprovided with caps, considerable difticulty has been experienced inconsequence of the caps extending over the plates, and various planshave been devised for effecting the purposes, none of which have provedsatisfactory, the plates being liable to work loose, and theiradjustment in the iingers, although imperfect, is still attended with aconsiderable expenditure of time. To obviate this difficulty I cast twonipples or pins on the face of each finger, and in a recess or rabbet onthe face which receives the plate, and in the cap of the'iinger,directly over each nipple or pin, there is a hole sufficiently large toallow a punch to pass through them to rest on the nipples and rivet orhead the same, the nipples passing through holes in the plate, and theformer, when headed, iirmly secures the plate in the nger.

The -invention has further for its object a more ready and perfect meansthan hitherto for fitting the guard-fingers t'o the finger-bar, wherebythe work may be rapidly done and at a much less cost than by the usualmode,

as will be fully described hereinafter.

In the recess or rabbet b there are two nipl ples or pins, c c-one nearthe front and the other near the back part of the recess or rabbet b.These nipples or pins extend up as high or a trifie higher than the topof the plate B, and pass through holes d in the plate, the oriiices ofwhich are countersunk. 'Ihe sides of the plate B are ground, so as toform per fect angles at their upper edges, which are the stationary orledger cutters over which the teeth of the reciprocating sickle work.

In the cap a of the finger A, and directly over each nipple or pin c,there is made a hole, e, sufficiently large to allow a punch to passthrough it. vBy this means the upper ends of the nipples or pins c c areheaded, so as to secure the plate B firmly in the recess or rabbet I),the end of the punch beingplaced on the upper end of each nipple, andthe latter headed by striking the punch with a hammer. Thus it will beseen that the plate B may be expeditiously and firmly secured to theface of the guard-iin ger, the cap of the latter, which has hithertoprevented the Work being done in' a proper manner, in thepresentinstance offering no impediment to the proper execution of the work.'Ihe back part, f, of the finger A-the part which abuts against theunder side of the fLnger-bar-is made concave, t0

form what may be termed a cap,77 :and this' cap has two upright nipplesor pins, g Ig, which are cast with the finger, but do not extend upquite as high as the sides or edges of the .part f. The lip h, which isat the front of the part f and abuts against the front edge of thefinger-bar when the iinger is secured to the iinger-bar, is also madeconcave, as shown at i in Figs. l and 2. These concave surfaces areiitted with any suitable soft metal or composition, c*-lead, forinstance, or a composition of lead and tin. These concave surfaces arefilled With the soft metal, so as to be even I 1. The securing of theplate B to the face of or flush with the edges of the'concaves, and thesoft metal is secured in the part f of the iinger by slightly bending orriveting the nipples or pins g g. (See Fig. l.) By this arrangement itwill be seen that the fingers may be snugly adjusted to the linger-bar7and with the greatest facility, as a true surface may be obtained forthe finger-bar to abut against, and the trouble and expense of planingand stamping or sWaging-modes hitherto employedto obtain a truesurface-avoided. In my invention the guard-linger is secured or clampedto a plate of steel having the desired position of the nger-bar, and thecavities of the finger are then filled With the molten soft metal. Thusa perfectly-accurate adjustment of the fingers to the finger-bar isobtained.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters the guard-finger A by means of the nipples or pins cc, cast With the finger and passing through holes in the plate, andheaded by means of a punch passed through holes e e in the cap, directlyover the pins or nipples, substantially as described.

v2. Fitting the guard-fingers snugly to the linger-bar by means ofsoft-metal bearing-surfaces mi, the latter being run in a molten stateinto cavities or cups made in the parts f and lips 7L of theguard-fingers, and secured therein by the headed nipples or pins g g,substantially as described. y

K. H. o. PRESTON.

Witnesses:

JosErH BAKER, J XV. lWIAN'rLER.

